Meet The Nipper: the world’s smallest smartphone charger

Two AA batteries is all you need for a little more juice

Portable smartphone chargers aren't the bulkiest of items yet the team behind The Nipper has just made the smallest one in the world.

The tiny device, which has already achieved its modest £6,000 funding goal on Kickstarter, measures in at 17mm x 17mm x 17mm and its small enough to fit on your keyring, thus not being a hinderance to your everyday life.

To use The Nipper, you have to unfold the small box and then insert two AA batteries before plugging it into the bottom of your juiceless smartphone. From there on in it can provide charge via the built-in microUSB connector for Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry smartphones with support for Apple devices reportedly on the way at a later stage.

In terms of the level of charge the device can provide, a HTC One M7 gains an extra 10% battery in just 30 minutes and this increases to 20% in just over an hour. Not the most impressive gain but given the Duracell Ultra AA batteries used only give 500mAh of power its as can be expected and will be vital in a emergency.

The novel keyring design will certainly attract certain people such as those still using much older handsets where the charger can give up to 50% more battery life, however, the fact that it provides so little charging power will mean that users of larger phablet-sized handsets won't see any real use for it.

Now that it has reached its funding goal, The Nipper is set to be delivered to customers mid-way through next year so it's time to start stocking up on cheap AA batteries!